Since 1938 Britannica’s annual Book of the Year has offered in-depth coverage of the events of the previous year. While the book won’t appear in print for several months, some of its outstanding content is already available online. This article, by Britannica contributor Phillip Whitten, is a sample of what you’ll find.

Though 2012 was an Olympic year and the main focus of both sports fans and antidoping authorities was on the Olympians, many athletes, especially those in sports such as baseball and professional cycling, continued to demonstrate that the lure of performance-enhancing drugs was impossible to resist. Serious athletes—whether professional or amateur—are constantly on the lookout for anything that will provide a competitive edge—a new strength-training regimen, a specialized diet, changes in technique or race strategy, a new coach, a uniform or swimsuit made of material designed to elicit “faster” performances, and, of course, performance-enhancing drugs.

Lance Armstrong, the former seven-time winner of the Tour de France. Credit: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Each year, the sweet, seductive song of “muscles for nothing” proves irresistible to many ambitious young athletes, and coaches and owners of professional teams often seem reluctant to enforce already-weak antidoping sanctions. It is generally recognized that world-record-setting sprinters attract the most attention, and it is the popularity of baseball’s 100-mph fastballer and 70-home-run slugger that draws crowds and fills stadium seats. Few sports fans, however, seem concerned that of those statistics 5–10% should be credited to athletes’ use of “designer” steroids or other sophisticated performance-enhancing aids.

The Professionals

In 2012 four high-profile professional athletes found themselves in the centre of swirling controversy over their alleged use of performance-enhancing substances, including steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), and erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that acts to increase the level of red blood cells and thus the flow of oxygen to muscles. In three of the cases—all involving Major League Baseball players—lawyers for the accused athletes were able to win acquittals for their clients. The fourth case, which involved cyclist Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, ended less satisfyingly for the accused.

Roger Clemens, an overpowering pitcher who played in the major leagues for 24 years (1984–2007) and won seven Cy Young awards, was accused of doping by Brian McNamee, his former strength trainer. McNamee stated under oath, in 2008 and again in 2012, that he had injected the pitcher with steroids and HGH on numerous occasions between 1998 and 2001, but the prosecution could not produce any credible witnesses to corroborate McNamee’s testimony. In June 2012 a jury took less than 10 hours to acquit Clemens of all charges that he had lied to Congress about his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and that he had obstructed justice. Though “the Rocket” won his case in a court of law, it was not clear how he would fare in the court of public opinion.

There's still time to add an asterisk to that record, you know. Credit: Eric Risberg/Getty Images

Barry Bonds, arguably the greatest player ever to set spikes on a baseball diamond, retired with two of baseball’s most storied records: most home runs in a season (73 in 2001) and in a career (762). After a 22-year career (1986–2007), he also ranked high among the leaders in every other offensive category, had been named National League MVP seven times, and was a Golden Glove fielder. In 2011, however, Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice for having given evasive testimony during a grand jury investigation into his possible use of steroids and HGH. Given a very light sentence that included 30 days’ house arrest and two years’ probation—federal guidelines recommend incarceration for 15–21 months—he filed an appeal in 2012. Bonds and Clemens, along with another slugger accused of doping, Sammy Sosa, were all eligible for baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2013, but it remained to be seen whether they would be elected or rejected, as had been Mark McGwire, a former home-run champ who later admitted to having used steroids.

Unlike Clemens and Bonds, 28-year-old Ryan Braun, who had made his major league debut in 2007, the same year that they retired, was hardly a household name. The soft-spoken team leader of the Milwaukee Brewers put up some spectacular numbers during the 2011 season—a .332 batting average, 33 home runs, 111 runs batted in, and 33 stolen bases—and earned the nod as the National League’s MVP. The announcement during the play-offs that Braun had tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone and was facing a 50-game suspension came as a shock to many baseball fans. Braun, claiming that the drug-testing process used in his case had been “fatally flawed,” filed an appeal with an arbitrator. To the surprise of almost everyone, in February 2012 the appeals panel ruled 2–1 in Braun’s favour, in part because of questions over the handling of the test sample. It was the first time that a major league player had succeeded in getting a doping penalty overturned.

By 2012 the basic outline of the Lance Armstrong story had become widely known. In the mid-1990s he was a solid but unspectacular American cyclist who failed to complete three of four Tours de France that he attempted during 1993–96. Armstrong was diagnosed in 1996 with metastasized testicular cancer, but after surgery and chemotherapy, he was cured and transformed into a “super cyclist,” winning the Tour de France for an unprecedented seven straight years (1999–2005). Armstrong gained a legion of supporters, but his critics, notably award-winning Irish journalist David Walsh, did not believe that his victories were attributable solely to newfound athletic prowess and determination. Walsh wrote two books suggesting a less-noble explanation for the cyclist’s success: blood doping. Despite the fact that Armstrong had never failed a properly administered drug test, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was convinced by witness testimony and circumstantial evidence that the cyclist was guilty. In August 2012, after years of allegations and a two-year criminal investigation, Armstrong said, “Enough is enough,” and abandoned the fight. He was subsequently stripped of all seven Tour victories and an Olympic bronze medal and was banned permanently from the sport. Armstrong was the third Tour winner stripped of his victories because of doping, joining fellow American Floyd Landis (2006) and Spain’s Alberto Contador (2010).

The Olympians

At the 2012 London Olympic Games, only one gold medalist was disqualified for having used an illegal performance enhancer: shot-putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus. In the run-up to the Games, however, some 100 other athletes had been sanctioned by various governing bodies.

Marion Jones, formerly the first woman to win five track-and-field medals at a single Olympics. Credit: AP

In previous years some very high-profile Olympic athletes were identified as having used illegal performance-enhancing substances. Canada’s suspiciously yellow-eyed Ben Johnson exploded from the blocks in the 100-m dash at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and took the gold medal in world-record time. After a urine test revealed the presence of a steroid in Johnson’s system, however, his record was overturned and his medal was recalled by the International Olympic Committee and presented to runner-up Carl Lewis. At the Sydney Games in 2000, American Marion Jones, the “fastest woman on Earth,” became the first woman to win five medals (three gold and two bronze) in track and field in one Olympics. After initially denying accusations that she had used banned substances, she finally admitted that she had. Jones was then stripped of her medals and served six months in prison for perjury.

Despite those high-profile cases, there are several general observations that one could make about doping in international sports:

*Although no sport appears immune to the plague of performance-enhancing drugs, athletes in certain sports—including cycling, weightlifting, and track and field—seem to be more likely than those in other sports to employ these aids in their quest for gold.
*Athletes from poorer, less-developed countries are overrepresented in the list of drug violators.
*Athletes from poorer countries continue to get caught using old-fashioned steroids, which are relatively easy to detect.
*Athletes from richer countries tend to use more-sophisticated designer drugs, which are more difficult to detect, and many observers suspect that an even greater number of such athletes successfully mask their drug use.

Though some observers have expressed the fear that performance-enhancing drugs, notably those that are increasingly difficult to detect, could result in the decline and disappearance of truly competitive sports, that seems unlikely. Like death and taxes, however, those drugs will probably always be with us, and in the future many sports will almost certainly have to embark upon a sea change to accommodate this new drug-enhanced reality.